John Imes: One family

John Imes

January 13, 2011 9:56:00 AM

On New Year''s Eve in Alexandria, Egypt, a bomb went off at Coptic Christian church during a worship service, killing 21 people. A week later, during the Coptic celebration of the Christmas mass, thousands of Muslims showed up to encircle Coptic churches around Egypt and act as human shields, risking their lives to protect the Christians from further violence. They joined together under the slogan, "We either live together or we die together."

I hope this story will be noticed by those who think all Muslims are war-mongering and want to destroy Christendom. It''s not true. This story shows Muslims as role models in the stand for the unity of humanity. One report says that many Facebook users in Egypt have adopted a profile image of a crescent together with a cross to show the Muslim-Christian solidarity.

I traveled in Turkey a few years ago and received a kind of hospitality from Muslims that I have rarely seen outside of friends and family. One Turk at a bus stop paid for my ticket after a very brief wordless exchange, and when the bus arrived late that night in an unfamiliar city, a fellow passenger invited me to his apartment, cooked dinner for me and invited friends over to join us. Almost everyone I spoke to there told me that we -- Christians and Muslims and all -- are descendants of Adam and Eve. We are of one family.